Get Food Storage Now

Get food! Get it now! Get lots of it! Hoard! Hoard! Sorry, I lost my mind for a moment. I was thinking out loud. That line above was what I’ve been thinking about lately. We just got back from a visit to our daughter and son. It was so good to get away and to see them and their families. Especially the Grandkids. Yes, I have Grandkids. I don’t usually go into detail about my life but I’ll fess up to Grandkids. Anyway, as I watch the news, hear from friends with connections from Greece to Dubai, I had certain feelings. My wife on the other hand had access to bulk stores that she doesn’t normally have access to. She did not go crazy but she is really the one who knows what our food storage needs are. She uses it daily. So this is what we have done in the last month. We’ve beefed up (no pun intended) a few areas in our food storage where we were getting low. My wife usually does a bulk grain order each year but through circumstances she didn’t do it this year. We didn’t just focus on food storage. We decided there were some things we wanted to have on hand like a full oil and filter change for our vehicles. I like to have a new container of Sta-Bil for fuel on hand at all times. We like to maintain a bucket full of pest control products such as wasp spray and rat poison. We topped off that bucket. I looked in my shop for any products that I like to keep on hand: carburetor cleaner, WD40, Oil mixture for the chainsaw, spare chainsaw blades, vehicle radiator fluid, motor oil, etc. I put together a list and we brought that up to snuff. My wife looked at her canning materials and sewing items and she brought that up to what she would like to keep in store. We also looked at our seed box and made sure we had seeds that are needed. But what I want to talk about is food storage. Like I’ve said before this is something that I have literally grown up with. I had the yellow Walton Feed bags of wheat under my bed while a child. We always had a “food storage” room with lots of shelves. My Mother always had a wheat grinder and a Bosch mixer. So this is not bizarre behavior to me. But to many others, they have a hard time seeing a problem in this land of plenty. Then came 2020. Natural disasters abound and the topper is a pandemic and civil unrest. Now us crazy “preppers” don’t sound so crazy do we? Actually, it’s not really a “prepper” thing, but a way of life. You think differently. It starts by slowly getting a 3 month supply of what you normally eat. Instead of buying 1 can of soup you buy 2. You date that extra can and put it where you are going to store your food storage. It will add up quickly. As you are doing this you learn about working with long term food like grain and beans. You buy some of this and work with it. You find recipes made with long term ingredients and find out what you like and what your family doesn’t. You start to buy some of these items in bulk, learning how to store food safely and securely. Next you supplement your storage with freeze dried and dehydrated food. Next you can start a garden. Even if you live in an apartment you can have a garden in pots. When you receive a harvest you may want to learn to can your abundance. This also supplements your food storage. None of this needs to be learned over night. There are many aspects of food storage and you can find what works best for you and your family. This is some good information: One Adult Portion Grains—400 pounds (181 kg); includes wheat, flour, rice, corn, oatmeal, and pasta Legumes—60 pounds (27 kg); includes dry beans, split peas, lentils, etc. Powdered Milk—16 pounds (7 kg) Cooking Oil—10 quarts (9 l) Sugar or Honey—60 pounds (27 kg) Salt—8 pounds (3.6 kg) Water (2 weeks)—14 gallons (53 l) This information is bare minimum. I would recommend 2 gallons of water per person, per day. The grains are similar to what the Germans fed prisoners in concentration camps so make sure you go deeper than the basics. As you start cooking and baking, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how much of each ingredient you need. It’s more than you think. With the rare and powerful derecho storm in Iowa that ruined a large amount of corn. Iowa is the leading producer of corn in the U.S. The damage will effect a lot of things. Corn is used in many ways. Beef is impacted by corn. Prices will rise more than they have been. It’s time to work in earnest on your food storage. As member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we believe and teach that we are in the last days before the coming of Christ. It’s interesting to me that members believe this and teach it, but then are surprised when these “signs of the times” present themselves. This is supposed to happen. I believe it will get worse. Can things get worse than 2020? They can. But you’ll be prepared. If you feel inspired, and you have little to no food storage, buy a few cases of items and a few bags of others. One of the things I’ve noticed is something that concerns me. You may want to put on your tin foil hat for this one. I wonder if there is a conspiracy, real or happenstance, that the world, and this country’s, food is being controlled. Under the guise of COVID-19 meat packing plants, farms, and other canneries, are being shut down. Before 2013 anyone could go to an LDS cannery and for a small fee could dry pak food yourself. This was a great savings and a great resource for those working on their food storage. That has since changed. The Church’s statement said partially: “Much of the discussion regarding this issue has suggested that this change is due to food safety regulation. While it has been a factor, the concern expressed regarding that issue has been overstated." But 12 canneries are still open to anyone who wants to can. Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada; Mesa, AZ; Carrollton, TX; Lindon, UT; Logan, UT; Ogden, UT; Salt Lake City, UT (Welfare Square); Sandy, UT; Springville, UT; St. George, UT; Idaho Falls, ID; and Boise, ID. There are 89 other canneries that sell pre-canned goods. So by way of regulation, and for “everyone’s good”, manufacturing a food shortage, or at the very least skyrocketing prices, is for people control. I’ve even seen what looks like a small seed shortage out there. But there are considerably less people who grow their own food. So maybe that’s not a real control. By contrast, there is a ammo shortage and a gun shortage. Manufacturing can’t seem to keep up. But that doesn’t really have anything to do with food. Controlling guns and ammo may be a key thing in the future. But if you want to control people without disarming them, control their food. Conspiracy theories aside, now is a good time to get your food storage. It’s not ideal. January or February was ideal before shortages and higher prices. But I would advise you to do what you can now. Semper Paratus Check 6 Burn

Reason For Dark Humor

I have a joke for you. Shouldn’t we be waiting until after the virus runs its course to do the 2020 census? Now before you boo me and write a nasty comment, the above is an example of dark, graveyard or gallows humor. I want to tell a story. But it’s a sad story and has the potential to be a graphic one. I don’t want to go into too much detail or it might be something you may not want to read. And I want you to come back and read this blog. So I’ll be a little vague. I was in a large fighting position in Central America. I was in the middle of a firefight along with 14 other guys. The fight was getting intense. Beside the bullets coming in, the enemy was using RPG’s (rocket propelled grenades) and mortar. These guys were idiots or they had idiot commanders. Their tactics were not very good at the least. They also did not understand how mortar works and how to use it effectively, thank goodness. But it was random so that was pretty scary. One of my good friends was in the position next to me about 3 yards away. He was hit by enemy fire in the neck. I tried to stop the bleeding and the medic tried to stop the bleeding but the wound was too much. He died right there at my feet. It was a horrible experience and it adds to the other trauma I went through those few days. When we finally got out of that situation and back to a safe place I was making some jokes that someone who had not experienced something like that would not have found humorous. This is a defense mechanism that is used by military members who have seen combat and others. Law Enforcement often deal with this too. Firefighters and EMS do this also. Joking about death and destruction is dealing with having seen things that are difficult to process. Dead baby jokes and sometimes vulgar jokes are common. I won’t tell vulgar jokes so all I have left is dark, tacky humor. Talking about death in a flippant way minimizes the pain and loss that death has given you. Even Joseph Stalin famous Marxist understood (he killed enough people…). He said: “Dark humor is like food; not everybody gets it.” It’s even in pop culture. When the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” came out I remember a particular line. After looking in “The well of the souls” and seeing it filled with snakes, Indiana Jones’ friend Sallah says: “Asps! Very dangerous! You go first.” This is defined as a comic style that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. If we can joke about something, it makes it less threatening in our minds. This type of humor is all over the place, but for those who don’t deal in life or death situations, they don’t quite get it or appreciate it. After talking with a buddy of mine and discussing some past firefight my friend’s wife said to him: “You guys are sure morbid. You sound like members of the mafia!” He just laughed. When he told me what his wife said I told him we should start a business: Make Me Laugh funeral services. We put the fun in funeral! Stay sane out there. Stay healthy. Semper Paratus Check 6 Burn